Learning Progressions Analysis

Learning progressions analysis is a methodology for describing and validating the typical paths by which students' understanding of a core concept grows more sophisticated over time. A learning progression hypothesizes an ordered sequence of increasingly advanced ways of thinking — from naive ideas to expert understanding — and then tests that ordering against evidence of how students actually reason. Prominent in science and mathematics education, it links a theory of the domain, the design of assessment tasks, and a measurement model into a coherent description of conceptual development.